In life, humanity is bound to make mistakes. Individuals are condemned to walk a narrow
path of right and wrong. Once a person
falters, can they regain their footing and walk along the path once more? According to Burchard of Worms, it is
possible if the correct penance has been paid for the crime. His written work, The Corrector, was widely accepted
and used as a consult when dealing with an act of sin.
Frequently, his punishments were fasting for a number of
days on bread and water. I find this
form of punishment (or begging of forgiveness) strangely tame. In later times, people who had committed the
same acts were tortured and/or burned. Yet
in this time period, the acts can be forgiven with a simple amount of
fasting.
Did the punishment and persecution of witchcraft become more
violent as the years went on? If this
document is anything to judge by, I would say so.
It is also interesting that punishment is viewed as almost
starvation. Hunger is by far one of the
most unpleasant feelings a human being can experience and at the time hunger
might have been common; especially in the lower classes where the “sinners”
were most likely found. Was his
punishment really meant to make them feel remorse like a child standing in a
corner or symbolic in a religious way?
I also find it interesting that as we continue to read
through his acts of evil and the penance that should go along with them, he
starts to target women more and more.
Initially, the acts of evil seemed to be neutral. They could be done by a man or woman. But once we get to the later ones, he begins
to focus more intently on females.
Numbers 153, 170, 175, 180, and 181 all start with roughly the same sentence.
“Have you done what some women…”
“Have you done what some women…”
It is as if he is directly implying that women are more
prone to fall for these sins or sin in general.
It seems that he believed so but it is hard to say based on what is
provided by Kors and Peters.
I think the repercussions of practicing magic grew more intense as the years went on because the church was tired of dealing with it. They viewed these people as evil and knew these practices were spreading, so they went to more drastic measures in order to halt the progression of it. I thought it was interesting that people were tortured until they confessed to being a witch. The torture methods they used were surely enough to make anyone admit to things they did not do. It was almost as if it did not matter if you really were practicing magic; if you were accused, you'd be tortured and then put to death.
ReplyDeletePerhaps fasting wasn't so much a punishment as it was an attempt to get the sinners closer to God. Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights so that he could more thoroughly devote himself to God. Doing this forced Jesus to rely on God for strength and wisdom in preparation for his death, and maybe that's why sinners were forced to fast - if fasting brought Jesus closer to God so that he could die for the sins of man, than perhaps common sins could be absolved through imitating him.
ReplyDeleteYes, fasting is a way of sacrifice. Like Cathrine said in her dialogue, to obtain ultimate good, one must sacrifice everything. One way a Christian can prove to God they have not lost faith is to fast. Though it might sound silly, it is not harmful but it is hard if the Christian follows the guidelines to fasting.
DeleteI hadn't thought of it in that direction. I am not overly religious either so it didn't initially come to mind. But that is likely the reason! It seems plausible at least. However, if that is the case were they even really being punished? Did it go from no punishment to death?
DeleteI feel like later on, the church became like Texas and put in an express lane for the death penalty.
I'd also like to mention that I am not well versed in Bible stuff so if anything is wrong with the previous comment please let me know - Google isn't always reliable.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the increase of harsher punishments as time went on. It seems like the Church was fine as long as you confessed and repented and then did your penance to show that you were truly sorry. I also agree that the fasting punishment could be connected to Jesus' 40 days in the desert. Fasting also has its roots in the Jewish religious practices as well (Jesus was Jewish, so he would have fasted during religious holidays and other holy days).
ReplyDelete